Shiv mandir symbol of faith for more than 150 yrs

More than 150 years old Shiv temple; ling having an Asian Map on it Situated in the heart of Upper Kaithu region, near Police Line, stands an ancient Shiv Mandir as a symbol of religious faith for more than 150 years.

Shimla: “We can also clam it to be every more primeval as this land initially during the Raj days belonged to the Gorkhas’, who came with the Britishers and settled in this area. Considering the foundation stone of the Gorkha School that is October 21, 1911, the temple was there even before that and Gorkhas of the area use to worship there,” informed Keval Ratan Rana (84 years old), resident of the area.

There is an interesting story in context to the Shiv Ling in the temple as Chander Mohan Sharma, temple priest shares, “It is said that once a sage came and rested on this land being connected with natural source, he thought about making flower beds. While digging the soil his tool banged against a stone which immediately changed its colour and seemed exactly the way when any human gets a bruise after receives a strong blow.”

Ever since it is considers that it was Shiv’s form as all the surrounding area was a crimination ground and as per the mythology says, Shiv use to often penance at such places. According to Sharma there is a vast variety of snakes that guard the temple but however they never harm any human.

Standing on the private land, the land owner D.N. Sood; however the temple land has been donated by his family; shares the history of the temple saying, “In the year 1880s my father and uncles came to this place also know as Lama Villa Gorkha Muhalla. Somewhere in around 1900 all of them collectively bought this land and the temple was already there, though there was nothing remarkable about its infrastructure. Over the years we developed the committee to maintain the temple and in the past few years temple has witnessed number of religious activities.”

“With the passing of time our family also constructed Lama Villa dharamshala, having 4 sets for the people to stay but since there are not many people coming from to pay homage there are being occupied as a residence and if development is done then we all are willing to get them vacated as per the agreement signed by us with the corporation in the past”, says Sood.

“There are three natural water sources in the temple, which never dry up but one of them has been locked down as people started polluting the water source. The one which runs straight inside the temple is named Shiv Ganga. We have also connected taps to this natural water source outside the temple for the benefit of the surrounding residents of the area during the time of water scarcity”, informed Sood further.

Though Sood also considers temple’s Shiv ling to be its unique feature that makes this temple stand apart from rest of the other old temples but with a different opinion. He says, “If one takes a close look at the Ling, one can see Asia map on it. Over the years no one has ever even touched the ling or tried to do anything unnatural with it to give it two colours and appear like an Asia’s map. I think an archeological department people should come and test its authenticity and should give this miraculous wonder its due respect by making people all around the world aware about it.”

According to him there were statues drowned in the water which were taken out by the people and unfortunately were not preserved, otherwise they could have helped in establishing and tracing the original time when the temple was consecrated as in the current times one is only able to estimate the approximate time on the basic of few evidences like Ghorkaha School’s foundation stone.

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